The Blue Fingers Blog

This is a true story.  Even professional pen mechanics have their limits……

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I had just finished the restoration of a burgundy Waterman Taperite Citation, a pen that I planned to sell. This is the Taperiate with the transparent end, much like the Waterman Hundred Year Pens. Burgundy gets an amber end, and it turned out perfect, and I do mean perfect!  The profile was just right, the transition from clear to the burgundy barrel seamless with a bit of translucency where they overlapped.  It was glorious.

The work completed,  I was looking at the pen quite closely, trying to decide what the pen was worth in such a nicely restored condition.   Maybe $150, maybe more?   The imprint was crisp, the trim clean, the nib wrote quite nicely…   It was a rather nice pen, and I was  quite tempted to keep it.  The only thing was,  the cap didn’t want to click onto the pen the way it was supposed to, and I was fiddling with it (gently) trying to figure out why,  when snap!!   The barrel broke right in half…  Right through the lever box, right through the imprint.  I knew that even if I could solvent weld the barrel back together there would always be a visible reminder that it was repaired, and I would lose at least part of the imprint.  Whatever value that glorious looking barrel had, was now lost.

I sat there for a minute, looking at it in disgust.   There was only one thing to do.   I very carefully separated the lever box and lever with the pressure bar intact (parts is parts!), took the section out, gently laid the two pieces of the barrel on the bench, and then beat the snot out of them with a ball-peen hammer.

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For those of you who have never  seen a Taperite Citation, this is a black one.  I replaced the end on it as well.

You get some idea how nice these pens can be when restored.  But the burgundy in question was much nicer.